Speaking to reporters in Florida while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, President Donald Trump announced that the US military has struck a dock facility on Venezuelan territory.
In typical form, Trump referred to what he called a “major explosion” at a dock area inside Venezuela where, he claimed, “they load the boats up with drugs,” and boasted, “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area and that is no longer around … Two nights ago, we knocked that out.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
The off‑the‑cuff remarks were delivered at his Mar‑a‑Lago resort during a photo‑op with the war criminal Netanyahu. The two fascists basked in the announcement of a new reckless military act that threatens the lives of millions through a direct US assault on and invasion of Venezuela.
In response to a question from a reporter about comments Trump made on Friday about the attack, the US president presented it as a continuation of the ongoing “anti‑drug” campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, claiming that US forces struck a “big facility” used to load narcotics onto boats. Neither Trump nor any US military authority has provided verifiable details about the precise location, the nature of the target, the munitions used or the number of people killed, beyond vague references.
The strike appears to have involved air‑launched precision munitions delivered from US forces operating offshore, but the lack of official clarification highlights the lawless character of the operation. Experts have said there is a likelihood that the “facility” was a civilian port or dual‑use maritime infrastructure.
As of this writing, no authoritative source has provided details of what happened.
Despite the extraordinary implications of a US strike on Venezuelan territory, none of the principal organs of the American state—the White House, Pentagon or CIA—has issued a formal briefing or detailed explanation.
Meanwhile, also on Monday, US Southern Command posted on social media that the Joint Task Force Southern Spear had carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The US military carried out the strike in the eastern Pacific and destroyed a small boat claimed to be involved in drug smuggling. The attack, which was carried out in international waters, reportedly used air‑launched precision munitions against the craft without warning or attempt at interdiction or arrest.
This latest incident is one of a series of 30 or more such actions in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that have killed around 105 people, in which unknown individuals are killed execution‑style based on unsubstantiated claims of narcotics trafficking.
In the case of the dock strike, however, no Defense Department statements or military social media announcements have been issued acknowledging responsibility. The Pentagon has referred all questions to the White House, and the White House has “not immediately responded” to media requests for information, while intelligence agencies have maintained a studied silence.
As of Monday, Venezuelan officials had not issued a detailed public statement confirming damage or casualties at the dock facility mentioned by Trump. Previously, the Venezuelan government has denounced the boat strikes as “serial executions” and an “undeclared war,” warning that Washington is preparing an invasion under the pretext of drug interdiction. Caracas has also accused the US of seeking regime change to seize control of the country’s vast oil reserves.
Accepting that a land strike has in fact occurred, it is the latest in the months‑long US campaign of terror from the sea and air. Since early September, US forces have carried out at least 30 lethal strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing approximately 105 people. These operations, run through US Southern Command and involving an aircraft carrier strike group, an amphibious assault ship and thousands of Marines, have turned international waters off Venezuela into a killing field.
The Trump administration has declared that the US is in an “armed conflict” with “drug‑smuggling” boats run by “narco‑terrorist” cartels. In an October letter to Congress, the Pentagon indicated that those involved in trafficking are being treated as “unlawful combatants,” language that echoes the pseudo‑legal framework for imperialist crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Survivors’ accounts and independent reporting have exposed that these were unannounced, summary executions at sea, in some cases involving follow‑up strikes after initial hits, confirming their character as war crimes.
US authorities have also been stopping and seizing oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, using the Coast Guard and other agencies to enforce a de facto maritime blockade. The campaign has “intercepted” tankers and signaled that any ship attempting to transport Venezuelan oil faces the threat of confiscation or destruction.
Trump officials themselves acknowledge that their objectives include not only alleged drug interdiction, but the removal of Maduro and the restoration of US corporate and financial interests expropriated during earlier phases of the regime.
The Democratic Party has responded to the escalation with a mixture of feigned outrage and essential agreement with Trump’s underlying imperialist aims. House Democrats recently pushed war‑powers resolutions in response to the boat‑strikes, with Representative Gregory Meeks of New York complaining after a classified briefing that the administration had failed to present a “clear strategy” and had not properly consulted Congress before it engaged in international crimes.
Meeks openly acknowledged that the operation does not appear to be “solely about drug trafficking” and voiced concerns that it is a regime‑change campaign that should be openly declared and formally authorized.
Florida Democrats who have close ties to the anti‑Maduro exile community, have issued statements attacking the “brutality of the Maduro dictatorship” while also denouncing Trump for hypocrisy. Their criticisms focus on Trump’s reliance on unsubstantiated claims about “Venezuelan fentanyl” while pardoning major traffickers elsewhere, and on his refusal to seek a Congressional “blank check” authorization for the use of force.
Not a single leading Democrat has denounced the boat and dock strikes as war crimes or demanded the immediate withdrawal of US forces from the region, confirming that their differences with Trump are tactical and not fundamental.
The latest strike on Venezuelan territory is an act of aggressive war, in direct violation of the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force and the sovereignty of states. Aggression—the launching of war without lawful justification—was declared “the supreme international crime” by the Nuremberg Tribunal, which tried, convicted and punished leading Nazi officials, including by hanging, for planning and waging wars of conquest.
The US campaign of massacring boat crews on the high seas and now striking land facilities inside Venezuela under bogus “anti‑drug” pretexts falls squarely into this category, placing Trump, his generals and his accomplices among the imperialist war criminals of the 21st century.
The US has not been attacked by Venezuela and Trump’s claims that the drone strikes are in “self‑defense” against narcotics traffickers are blatant lies. Washington is exploiting its overwhelming military superiority to achieve regime change and strategic dominance in contempt of both domestic and international law.
As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, the assault on Venezuela has everything to do with oil and imperialist geostrategy. US imperialism is seeking to overthrow the Maduro regime and install a government that is subordinated to Wall Street and the Pentagon.
The awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado is a signal from all the imperialist powers that regime change in Venezuela is on the agenda. As the WSWS has noted, Machado’s political supporters openly advocate the use of violence and foreign intervention, and she has coordinated plans with the Trump administration for the “first 100 hours” after Maduro’s removal.
Historically, the US state has repeatedly collaborated with and utilized drug traffickers as instruments of policy, from CIA‑linked operations in Central America to the protection of friendly regimes and paramilitary forces across the hemisphere. The same apparatus that now denounces “narco‑terrorism” has long encouraged and manipulated the drug trade to deepen its control over sections of the Latin American bourgeoisie and to finance covert operations beyond the scrutiny of the population.
Behind the war drive against Venezuela is the broader imperialist strategy of asserting US hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s own statements and policy directives have included threats to seize control of the Panama Canal, annex Greenland and treat Canada as a de facto “51st state,” an open program of 21st‑century colonialism.
Commentators and strategists have noted that these strategic goals are framed in terms of “national security” and the struggle against rising Chinese and Russian influence internationally. The White House 2025 National Security Strategy has articulated in plain language a so-called “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine that seeks to exclude rival countries from what it regards as its exclusive sphere of influence.
This doctrine underlies the military buildup off Venezuela’s shores and the transformation of the Caribbean into a forward operating theater for US militarism and war. The aim is not only to topple Maduro but to demonstrate that no government in the hemisphere can act outside the dictates of Washington and Wall Street without facing economic strangulation, covert destabilization and, if necessary, direct military attack.
The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!
